ULI survey reveals a growing preference for more walkable communities

It’s a curious description that the Urban Land Institute uses often in its first of what it expects will be an annual Community Survey.

The phrase “compact development” showed up time and again in both the presentation Wednesday morning by Lynn Ross, the executive director of the Terwilliger Center for Housing at the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Land Institute, and in the findings of her organization’s survey.

Ross spoke at the Community Development Summit at the Omni William Penn Hotel hosted by the Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group. She made clear that the time is now when it comes to changes in housing needs.

“You often hear about how demographic change is coming. It’s not coming. It’s here,” she said. “Communities that are going to thrive are the ones that recognize that change and roll with it.”

In a survey about American views on housing, transportation and community, Ross emphasized a substantial preference by a host of different respondents for compact development, a term suggesting a market opportunity not just for cities.

The survey doesn’t present great news for distant McMansions, with 61 percent of the respondents indicating they would prefer a smaller home with a shorter commute than the inverse.

Ross noted that 53 percent of the respondents wanted to live close to shops, restaurants and offices.

While the survey revealed the desire for home ownership is as strong as ever, Ross described a survey that pointed out the opportunities to be had by communities the prepare themselves for new residents.

That's because 62 percent of the survey’s respondents said they expect to move within five years.

Strong majorities of those movers-to-be are looking to be close to shops, restaurants and offices (62 percent), will seek a smaller home with a shorter commute (59 percent), and will want public transit available (52 percent).

Ross notes that new generation of young people prefer compact development (62 percent).

As I’ve reported on the action taking place with residential growth downtown and the ongoing revitalization of the city’s neighborhoods, I’ve yet to start seeing much “compact development” take place outside the city of Pittsburgh yet.

With the economy improving, it will be interesting to see how much developers take note of these kinds of trends in bringing new housing and mixed-use development to Pittsburgh’s suburbs to answer the preferences this survey suggests.

As the ULI plans to conduct this survey every year to monitor trends and changing preferences, I'll have my eye out for suburban development projects that look to answer a growing market.